Tigers sweep to get to 17-9...maintaining my .600 win pct needed to win Central division, they can go 3-3 in the next 6 and still be at 20-12 (.600)
Up next: 4 at home vs houston, 3 at home vs Minnesota Prediction: 5-2 Record: 22-11
Hitters warming up....against very very good KC staff!!!!!
Guess who has more HR's than Cabrera??? AVILA! LOL
Miggy will get his legs back by June.

That was last Monday's rankings....with 5 game win streak we should be no lower than 4th when tomorrow's rankings come out. Only the A's, Brewers and Giants could would be ranked ahead of us if possible. In fact maybe only the Giants.

Robbie Ray's debut today in place of Sanchez (blister). He's been lights out in the minors with an ERA around 1.60. The winning streak is in danger, but we have so few games off for the rest of the year that having another starter to fill in once a month or so would be beneficial. He's also our emergency backup for future DL occurrences from our big 5.

He's a lefty with a "sneaky" fastball and an improving curve ball. His K rate has been good so far.

His opponent is 0-5 with a 5.63 ERA, so not sure who has the advantage in this one.

The starters are sailing along and usually run out of gas between the sixth and seventh inning and occasionally give a up a run. The holder comes in and holds in the 8th inning and then the ninth inning guy gives his best impersonation of 2012 papa grande giving up a few hits and a couple of runs.

Check out this link where we are number one in giving up the least number of runs in the 5th inning, second best in the 8th inning, but drop to 28th in the ninth inning.

We could lead the lead the league in ERA if the bull pen was stable as the starters. But I ain't mad at them as they are winning and pulling away from the rest of the central and the other AL teams to boot.

In summary, 2 of our starters have been ridiculously better than league average. Verlander and Porcello have been significantly better than league average. And our 5th starter, Smyly, has been slightly better than league average. Our main 2 relievers are also better than average with Al Al and Reed close to average. Except for Coke, our pitching has been about as good as it gets.

And Robbie Ray, in his debut, has inexplicably outperformed everybody, if just for a few hours. If he can prove that it wasn't a fluke, he might be a great addition to the bullpen, ala 2013 Smyly. We really need a lefty there.